The basic purpose behind the development of the web (www) is to make it work for all the people across the globe, irrespective of their software, hardware, language, location, or disability.
Thus, the web makes it possible for a diverse range of people to connect at all circumstances. Ultimately, the web (www) made it possible for people to access information and data without any sort of barrier. Web hampers all boundaries and hindrances that may exist in the physical world for people with a range of hearing, movement, or cognitive abilities. But even then, a badly designed website, application, or tool can actually hinder the connectivity of the web and as a result, exclude people from accessing the web. Now that we came to the point of accessibility, let me make it easy for you to understand it.
Those organizations, businesses, or developers who look forward to creating a high-quality website or web tools, must make their website accessible so that no people are excluded from the circle of web usage.
Let’s see what is web accessibility and how important it is for an interactive and flexible web experience!
What is Web Accessibility?
Ever wondered how people with different disabilities access the internet and digest the information? I mean this thought must have crossed your mind once like how a deaf person would hear the commentary of a cricket match or how a blind person would watch a YouTube video?
But let me tell you that the web (www) is no different for people with disabilities. The web (www) ensures equal opportunity to digest information for each and every human. The consumption of resources and data is the same for both the able and disabled people. This is the point where the term web accessibility comes into front foot.
Web Accessibility Definition:
Web accessibility refers to the usage of the web for interaction, navigation, information intake, or for gaining knowledge purposes, by people with different abilities. In simple words, web accessibility means that the web is accessible for disabled people. Web accessibility allows disabled people to contribute to the web and leverage it at the same time. Web accessibility also takes into account digital accessibility and the same set of principles works with mobile applications or any other digital product.
Web accessibility is a broad term so we cannot just say that it involves the accessibility of the web for disabled people only. In fact, web accessibility is about everyone who accesses the web. Because there are times when you unknowingly make use of the features on the web which are specially designed for disabled people, as they seem convenient and efficient for all.
Let’s take an example, the captions present in the videos that are generally implemented with the basic purpose for people with dyslexia or hearing impairment. But if I ask you but if you have ever used a caption while you were in a hurry, I am sure you won’t be able to deny that. So, at that point when you use the caption to understand the message of the video you actually leveraged web accessibility. In short, we can say that web accessibility not just focuses on the present but also lays emphasis on the future. Because many of us can have a temporary disability, if not permanent.
Benefits of Web Accessibility
We are living in a highly competitive digital world where there is no space for the slow and steady. What I’m trying to say is, that you have to implement the latest technological changes on your online platform before your competitors in order to stay ahead of them. Digitalization has offered people the ease and efficiency to perform multiple tasks by sitting in their comfort zone. Here are some benefits of making your website or mobile applications web-accessible:
- It reduces your likelihood of falling into legal actions. As web accessibility is a fundamental right, it’s absence may increase your risk of legal actions against your website.
- In the above section, I mentioned how important it is to stay ahead of your competition. By implementing web accessibility on your website or mobile applications, you as a business will be able to create a positive impact on your audience.
- Do you know that the consumers with disabilities share a spending power of 200 billion euros yearly? Well, then imagine how beneficial web accessibility can be for your online business.
- You will be able to record a high increase in your sales as the circle of your consumers will get larger due to web accessibility.
- Obviously, you’ll be able to save both the time and money of your business and your audience.
- Once you provide a flexible, smooth, and hassle-free online experience to your users, they will surely return back to your online platform. In this way, web accessibility will ultimately increase usability as well.
Why is Web Accessibility Important?
According to the WHO, around 285 million people in the world have vision impairments and almost one million people in the world live with different kinds of disabilities. As a business, can you avoid this huge number of people not using your website? Well, I guess probably not. It’s your primary responsibility as a webmaster and business owner to make your website accessible.
The Web is a highly crucial means in multiple sectors of life. Be it education, work, government, commerce, health care, leisure, or others. It is integral that the Web is accessible so that people with different abilities get equal access and equal opportunities via the web. Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), it is a fundamental right of people to have access to information and communication technology, including the Internet and the web.
How To Ensure Web Accessibility?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 can help you out with it. This is known as the international standard for creating open websites. With these set of guidelines, designers and developers can easily identify and fix usability concerns. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines may sound very comprehensive and overwhelming, but they cover all aspects of accessibility that affect people with visual, hearing, motor, and (to some degree) cognitive impairments.
How To Make A WordPress Website Accessible?
In this section, we have listed down some impactful tips to create an accessible WordPress website:
- For WordPress, web accessibility is a serious and essential part of a website. Thus, there are a lot of plugins and themes that can help you create an accessible website. A free Plugin that can help you out with the most common accessibility issues is WP Accessibility, you can make use of it.
- Pay extra focus to the empty or blank space present on different elements of a page while developing a WordPress theme. Some great examples of accessible WordPress themes are the default WordPress themes.
- Also, try to create readable and content on your webpage. Keep the sentences short and simple, avoid making use of abbreviations, choose your fonts wisely, and do not make use of heading to bold a word.
- Ensure that all your navigation menus are completely mobile friendly and responsive as well. Make them positioned in a relevant and consistent way. With the help of the keyboard, make the navigation menus accessible. Disabled users will simply be able to read the text with the help of a screen reading software.
- Try to create accessible dropdown navigation menus for the WordPress themes and make use of Keyboard Arrow Nav for enhancing the accessibility via keyboard.
- Make use of the WordPress image optimization plugins and services in order to compress the images on your website into a smaller size, so that your site will load faster.
- Provide Alt text for the images, it’s just like a description which helps blind people understand the subject of the image.
- While developing an accessible website, always keep in mind that the ratio of contrast between background and foreground, text, link, and colors should be 4.5:1 or 3.1:1.
- For video, you must include relevant captions, transcripts of audio, and a proper description of the video. It becomes easy to understand the video for those who have any kind of hearing impairments.
The Bottom Line
I think we have discussed most of the aspects of web accessibility, out of which, most of them are easy to understand and implement. In today’s generation, where new advancements in technologies are made every second to provide efficiency and comfort to users, you obviously need to implement web accessibility to stand out.
It is best to integrate accessibility from the very beginning of your online business and projects.